A Visit to Glashütte's Newest Independent Watchmaker

An inside look at former Lange watchmakers Kallinich Claeys' unique take on German watchmaking.

In August 2022, Johannes Kallinich and Thibault Claeys posted renders of their first watch, the Einser Central Seconds, in two variations: an 8-piece Founder’s Edition and a 22-piece Standard Edition.

It was the first release for the watchmakers after leaving A. Lange & Söhne to launch the 10th watch brand in Glashütte, Germany.¹ Within a day, they’d allocated all 30 pieces.

From there, it took two long years for the watchmakers to develop a working prototype. They created a WhatsApp group for their first clients and were transparent about the challenges they encountered along the way. Now, the Einser Central Seconds is a semifinalist for the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize.

The main road running through the Glashütte valley. Kallinich Claeys’ workshop is in the last building along the right side. [Lots of photos, so click the headline to view in browser.]

While Glashütte is the home of German watchmaking, it doesn’t have anywhere near the network of suppliers that Swiss watchmakers rely on, something Johannes and Thibault mentioned a few times. Most brands based in Glashütte are owned by conglomerates, and aren’t prone to sharing—their manufacturing and tech effectively sit behind a walled garden.

For example, Kallinich Claeys struggled to find a casemaker and a supplier who could produce the curved crystal that exposes the power reserve in the caseband at 8 o’clock (ironically, the casemaker across the street from their workshop doesn’t make their cases). That said, Kallinich Claeys does source components from others in the region, but everything is finished at their own workshop.

I was lucky enough to bump into Johannes and Thibault drinking beers during Geneva Watch Days 2024, where I got to see those first prototypes. A year later, they’ve delivered a handful of Einser Central Seconds to clients, with plans to complete 18-20 watches this year. They’ll also announce their second piece alongside Dubai Watch Week in November.

While visiting Nomos earlier this week, I extended my trip to visit with Kallinich Claeys. Their workshop is on the main road cutting through Glashütte, right between their former employee Lange’s main building and its employee parking lot. I’ll have a future dispatch from Nomos, but it was fascinating to juxtapose the largest independent watchmaker in Glashütte (Nomos) with the smallest (Kallinich Claeys). They’re very different businesses, but with some similarities. For example, both focus on movements, leaving cases and dials to external suppliers.

Johannes Kallinich and Thibault Claeys in front of their workshop in Glashütte, Germany. They occupy both halves of the first floor of this building in Glashütte.

The Beginning: Lange & Johannes’ Meisterwerk

The story of Kallinich Claeys begins at A. Lange & Söhne. After graduating watchmaking school in 2013, Johannes joined Lange, quickly rising to lead the Lange 1 team. Soon, he decided to pursue his master watchmaker certification in Germany.² As part of this process, he built a Meisterwerk (Masterpiece), which received some deserved attention on Watchfinder’s YouTube (“The Most Incredible Watch I’ve Ever Reviewed”).

Johannes' 'Meisterwerk' for his German master watchmaker certification. The dial and case are very Lange, and while the movement is traditionally German, it also introduces that additional indirect seconds bridge, which would serve as the foundation for Kallinich Claeys. Images: Courtesy of Johannes Kallinich.

Thibault Claeys is a watchmaker from Belgium who first joined Lange in the 1815 department in 2019. The pair became fast friends with an independent bent and left Lange in June 2022. Their skills naturally complemented each other, which is still apparent today. Johannes is brilliant in design and construction, while Thibault excels at crafting parts and hand-finishing. They’re an impressive pair; among other accolades, Johannes is also now an AHCI candidate.

The movement of the Einser Central Seconds.

The Einser Central Seconds shows off this combination of skills. The movement has many traditional features of Glashütte watchmaking: German silver bridges, engraved balance cock, gold chatons, a three-quarter plate, but with plenty of innovation. For example:

• Indirect center seconds. Unlike most modern movements, which have the fourth (seconds) wheel in the center of the movement to drive a center seconds, Kallinich Claeys uses an old-fashioned indirect seconds. Three additional wheels sit on top of the main bridge, redirecting the seconds from 6 o’clock back to the center—it’s similar to what Victorin Piguet made for Patek Philippe in the 1930s.

• Power reserve differential. The other set of gears you see jutting out of the movement is a power reserve differential, which drives the linear power reserve seen through the case. Its stainless steel bridge also stands out against the other German silver bridges.

• Three-quarter plate. While the Einser uses a traditional three-quarter plate, its cutouts expose the winding mechanism, making winding the movement all the better.

• Hand Finishing. Excellent hand-finishing is on display throughout: Anglage on the bridges, inner angles, hand-polished teeth and bevels on wheels, and mirror-polished pins throughout.

The initial Einser Central Seconds was priced at €24,900. A 10-piece Hong Kong Edition with A Watch Company was released soon after at ~€34,000.

Founder’s Edition. In addition to the different dial, it required 100% payment upfront for Kallinich Claeys to secure the capital they needed to set up shop.

The three editions of the Einser Central Seconds: Founder’s Edition (8 pieces), standard (22 pieces), and Hong Kong Edition (10 pieces).

The Einser Central Seconds has a three-part dial: An outer chapter ring, a hand-engraved central disc, and a tremblage inner ring. On the Founder’s Edition, the inner disc features a geometric pattern, while the standard version has traditional guilloche. Each part of the dial is brown on the Hong Kong edition. All engraving is completed by Helmut Wagner, a master engraver who was previously head of engraving at Lange.

For the Hong Kong edition, the engraving went even further, with engraved Bauhinia flowers—the flower on the Hong Kong flag—on the main bridge and the balance cock. The standard Einser features a balance cock with “shark gills” engraved by Wagner.

The hand-engraved flowers on the Hong Kong edition; the stainless steel bridge for the power reserve differential.

When I first met Johannes and Thibault a year ago, they were the entire company. Now, they have another 5 employees, with eyes on hiring a couple more before the end of the year. They’re also moving into a larger space in Glashütte.

Their first hire was Johannes’ twin sister, Marie. She studied graphic design, but it’s proved useful—Thibault said she’s got a natural eye and hand for finishing.

Glashütte Done Differently

The linear power reserve exposed by a crystal in the caseband.

Everything about the Einser Central Seconds is Kallinich Claeys’ take on German watchmaking. Walk around Glashütte or Dresden and you’ll see the classic “up/down” layout in pretty much every Uhren shop window. I love that Johannes took the power reserve and made it his own. The same goes for the three-quarter plate and German finishing.

Kallinich Claeys' handmade CNC machine, which shows Thibault's natural penchant for making. He showed me some photos from the early days of the company when this entire rig was setup in the kitchen of his small Glashütte apartment. It was a mess.

The price is also competitive given the amount of handwork from two talented young watchmakers. We’ve covered this trend before, but Kallinich Claeys’ pricing is better than most indies offering their flavor of finely finished three-handers.³ And I find the indirect seconds and power reserve differential technically interesting—modern takes on traditional ideas.

The Hong Kong edition is my favorite, with the monochromatic color scheme evening out the busy three-piece dial. I love the aesthetic of Johannes’ Meisterwerk, front and back, but that’s also to admit I’m boring and love a Lange 1815. The Einser Central Seconds undoubtedly offers more, making it especially attractive to independent collectors who expect this.

Kallinich Claeys hand polish and bevel the mainspring wheel, ratchet wheel, winding train wheels, and the wheels of the power reserve differential. That means polishing with tiny pieces of wood under a microscope.

I’ll be curious to see how their aesthetic evolves in the coming years. Glashütte’s watchmakers—led by Nomos and Lange—have some of the most consistent codes of any brand, drawing on German tradition with clean designs, rational layouts, and restrained ornamentation. It’s a rejection of Swiss flamboyance in favor of clarity and discipline.

After spending an afternoon with Johannes and Thibault, it’s clear they also have a different point of view on watchmaking than their independent Swiss counterparts. Sometimes it manifests as a sense of discipline, sometimes as a chip on their shoulder.

Glashütte continues to make some of the most compelling modern watches, and Kallinich Claeys are showing it should have a say in independent watchmaking, too. The Einser Central Seconds is full of ideas, and I’m excited to see how those are refined in the years to come.

Enjoy these photos from the Kallinich Claeys workshop in Glashütte. And please, please let me know if you enjoyed this look inside an exciting indie watchmaker, and I’ll do similar visits in Geneva next month. But these also take time (and $$): I spent an extra day in Dresden and took an hour train to get to Glashütte to visit with the guys (not to mention the extra hour after missing my transfer!).

A movement in process at their workbench.

Thibault called this his ‘box of failures’—components he’d messed up since they started Kallinich Claeys. Honestly, I might’ve expected more.

The dog's bed sits in the window, which is where he hangs out every day.

The first watch I ever bought was a Nomos Tangente, and I’ve long admired Lange’s watchmaking, so it was a dream to visit Glashütte. While most of these brands are large manufacturers, Kallinich Claeys is watchmaking as it’s so often romanticized.

The Swiss-made Schaublin 70 is a common site in watch manufacturers, with a history dating back 100 years—a traditional lathe used to fabricate all sorts of things (e.g. I also saw one at Nomos the next day).

Tools used for finishing the wheels; a wheel in question.

Two watchmakers finishing components at Kallinich Claeys

Seiko 5, Glashütte approved.